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October 2009
Has Smokey the Bear Moved to Washington? The Institute for Policy innovation’s Dr. Merrill Matthews says only you can prevent wasteful government spending.
The country’s forests are a national treasure. That’s why Congress appropriated millions of dollars in the stimulus bill for forest fire management, including $2.8 million for that much-loved national forest known as … Washington, D.C.
Now, Washington has its problems, but forest fires aren’t one of them
Steve Moore of The Wall Street Journal reports that when Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming discovered the funding, he introduced an amendment to reassign it to the U.S. Forest Service. The motion passed unanimously.
Ironically, Wyoming, which has lots of forests, got no forest fire management money.
Smokey the Bear used to say, “Only you can prevent forest fires.” And, I might add, only you can prevent Congre Read More...
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Has Washington completely abandoned any effort to stay within the parameters established by the U.S. Constitution?
Last week we learned that then Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke gave Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis an ultimatum: Go forward with BoA’s proposed merger with faltering Merrill Lynch or the government would fire BoA’s executives.
Excuse me, but under which article of the Constitution did the American people give any administration that power?
Similarly, is there any constitutional authority for Washington bailing out Chrysler and GM, then taking them over when just a bailout didn’t work, firing the executives and implementing its own hand-picked board and executives?
Is there any constitutional authority for gathering email addresses on those who might disagree with the administration, otherwise known as “fishy emails,” and using them for who knows what?
Read More...
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With all the political tricks flying around Washington this week you’d think it was Halloween, but we still have more than a week to go.
Last week, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) passed, to much fanfare, his health care reform bill. Much of the buzz around the bill is that the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) “scored” it as costing only $829 billion over 10 years. Democrats cheered.
(It goes to show you just how much ”change” the president has brought to Washington when you can preface $829 billion with the word “only” and no one laughs you out of town.)
But then it became clear that the only reason it came in under a trillion dollars is that the legislation didn’t include the “doc fix,” which costs some $240 billion or so. Read More...
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Do You Own a Green Car Yet? Dr. Merrill Matthews of the Institute for Policy Innovation says taxpayers may soon, like it or not.
The U.S. Department of Energy has just granted a $500 million loan to a start-up California car company that has never mass-produced a car.
Fisker Automotive’s first car, which rolls out next year, is a beautiful hybrid sports car. But it sells for $90,000, and is being made in Finland.
Fisker swears that the half-billion dollar taxpayer loan will only be used to produce a more affordable U.S.-made hybrid car—for $40,000. And that the loan will be repaid, with interest.
Of course, that’s only if the company can actually sell those cars.
American taxpayers already own Chrysler and GM. And now we’re investing a half-billion dollars in a start-up.
Read More...
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While lately a number of people may have been left out of the policy making process, the FCC has opened up an opportunity for you to comment on its plans to bring good old fashioned heavy handed regulation of the Internet through “network neutrality” rules.
But comments are being accepted only until this Thursday, October 22, at www.openinternet.gov (then click the “Join the Discussion” link).
Over the last many weeks, in response to the FCC chairman’s comments and news reports that the FCC is prepared to pursue comprehensive regulation, a rising crescendo of voices has been heard expressing deep reservations.
Of particular concern is that these additional regulations would drive up consumer prices for an average Internet user even while holding down prices for the heaviest users. Read More...
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The Obama Administration has earned kudos for their vision of using of technology to be a primary part of the solution to policy challenges from improved healthcare to efficient energy usage.
And while considering the application of existing technology to current problems is ahead of typical political thinking, it is still fairly two dimensional. The true promise of an information technology-based health system or of a smart grid for greener energy is the ongoing innovation, the promise of better and better solutions.
The administration and Capitol Hill need to broaden their thinking beyond particular solutions and begin considering ways to foster and empower a solution economy.
What makes up the solution economy?—a society that allows the freedom to innovate and experiment with ideas.
That requires an environment that encourages, or certainly allows, risk by providing reward. Read More...
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Is American Citizenship for Sale? Dr. Merrill Matthews of the Institute for Policy Innovation says for some wealthy mothers it is.
The Tucson Medical Center in Arizona has found a creative way to make money—and new American citizens.
The Arizona Daily Star says the Center sells “birth packages” to wealthy Mexican women, some of whom fly up on personal jets and stay at resorts while they wait to have their baby.
And the prices aren’t bad: $2,300 for a vaginal birth and $4,600 for a C section. Patients have to pay cash.
Try getting that price at most hospitals if you’re an uninsured American.
Of course, when those children are born in the U.S. they automatically become U.S. citizens.
So why stand in a line to become a U.S. citizen? If you’re pregnant and have enough money, you can just fly right over that line. Read More...
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Eight months ago, when the Democrats and the administration rammed through the $787 billion stimulus package, the public was lectured that the massive spending bill was needed to “save or create” jobs and stop the rise in unemployment.
Well, unemployment has continued to rise—nearly 2.9 million jobs have been lost since the stimulus bill passed—flummoxing the administration. And unemployment is likely to cross the 10 percent mark soon.
Republicans tried to work with the administration in shaping the legislation. Republican leaders met with the president with a list of tax cuts they thought would leave more money in people’s pockets, encourage investment and economic growth, and would ultimately be more effective in stimulating the economy than a massive spending spree.
President Obama pooh-poohed their proposals. The president pointed out that Democrats won the election and so they got to decide. Read More...
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Somewhere lost in all of the heated rhetoric about whether or not to move the country to a government health insurance plan are the patients—those who are and who will be ailing but who could be helped by advances in technology if that technology were deployed and not hindered.
Lost in all the rhetoric is that all the pieces of health care must work together to work in the interests of patients—not politicians or bureaucrats.
While the healthcare reform debate goes on, other parts of government are acting to the detriment of a better healthcare system and causing near and long term harm to those whose future well-being depends on innovation.
Perhaps the greatest threat is the FCC’s newly suggested heavy regulation of the Internet. As currently proposed the new regulations could hinder network providers from giving priority to healthcare applications. Read More...
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Should Government Support the Arts? The Institute for Policy Innovation’s Dr. Merrill Matthews says not when it asks artists to support the government...
The Washington Times reports that the National Endowment for the Arts recently held a conference call with artists and arts organizations.
An NEA spokesman encouraged the artists to use their artistic skills to promote President Obama’s health care reform and other efforts. Which they did with public statements—within 48 hours.
Not coincidentally, these same artists had already received $2 million in taxpayers’ money.
When asked the NEA denied it orchestrated the call. When shown a copy of the call announcement and statements made on the call, the NEA clamed up, according to the Times.
There was a time when artists saw themselves as part of the counterculture, challenging the powers that be.
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Here’s another casualty of the economic downturn: Social Security.
The Social Security program operates on a pay-as-you-go basis. Money coming in from workers is neither saved nor invested, but rather pays benefits today for current retirees.
Government officials had predicted that Social Security would take in more than it paid out until 2016, whereupon it would start drawing down surpluses from the Social Security trust fund.
But the severe recession has hurt government revenues, which means the future is here. The Congressional Budget Office now says that Social Security is already short: $10 billion this fiscal year and $9 billion next year.
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If I were the FCC, I'd spend my time on more important things than fighting a net neutrality problem that doesn't exist.
Like coming up with a better logo, for instance.
Jeez, dudes . . . Read More...
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"No cuts, no fees, education should be free" chanted University of California students a few days ago in reaction to California's plan to raise tuition fees in order to get a grip on its budget problems.
Now, there's nothing particularly unusual about spoiled college students protesting. They've become accustomed to subsidized tuition at the expense of the working population of the state, and it makes sense to them that taxes should be raised on their parents and grandparents rather than ask them to go out and get a part-time job or something to help pay for tuition. A job would get in the way of frat parties, after all.
But I was particularly struck by the chant that "education should be free." Seems to me that it's a logical extension of the philosophy they've been taught that "information wants to be free," and that music should be free. Read More...
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It would be hard to imagine an industry today that is more “dynamic” than the wireless industry. In a relatively short time a “cell phone” has become a necessity to virtually everyone, and one of the areas of most rapid technological innovation is in wireless handsets. Every few months one company or another introduces a new, feature-rich handset, which consumers eagerly gobble up.
At the same time, service providers compete fiercely for customers, continually upgrading their networks to provide better and faster service and even
financing consumers’ purchase of sophisticated handsets.
It would seem that this is at least one industry that has succeeded in pleasing consumers, delivering innovation, creating high-paying jobs, and funneling tax revenue to virtually every level of government. You’d think government would be pleased, yet every level of government seems to have the wireless industry in its crosshairs.
Read More...
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Author: Merrill Matthews Jr. || Location: Lewisville, Texas, USA